EK Water Blocks has lost its CEO, CTO and multiple R&D staff

EK Water Blocks has lost its CEO, CTO and multiple R&D staff

EK Water Blocks has lost its CEO, CTO and multiple R&D staff

EK Water Blocks is easily the biggest name in the PC liquid cooling scene today, offering water block designs for most major CPU sockets, motherboards and GPUs on the market alongside a large range of pumps and radiators. 

It has now been discovered that EK has gone through a huge change in management, with Mark Tanko, the company’s CEO, Niko Tivadar, the CTO, and Andrej P. Å kraba, the Head of Marketing, all leaving the company due to a disagreement with the company’s owner regarding its future. 

It has also been reported that several, members of EK’s R&D staff have also left the company, though this has not been confirmed. For now, EK’s founder, Edvard König has taken the role of CEO and is working on restructuring the company. Below is a statement from EK’s former CEO Mark Tanko. 


We can confirm that there has been leadership change at EKWB. As a result core management team consisting of CEO, CTO and Head of Marketing has left the company. We respect the decision of the owner to go in different direction. Our views on how to further develop and grow the niche and company were not compatible anymore. 

  
EK has also sent the following official statement confirming the changes to the company’s management and that these changes were due to the company’s ownership and management are due to differences in vision. 

          New management and new execution

Fast growing company EKWB has new CEO and CTO. Executive powers were taken over by Edvard König, founder and owner, and Matjaz Krc, his business partner from the start, business angel and veteran in turnaround management. The reason behind owners decision was that views on execution of company’s vision grew apart and changes were necessary for future growth and adaptation to new and fast market challenges. The company has currently 90 employees, from that 15 people in top and middle management and 7 in R&D.

Changes are opening the door for faster execution and more reliable launch of new products which was one of the biggest complaints from the market. Biggest changes are happening in two main areas: R&D and communication. The former needs to improve and that is why it is in revision and development. Regarding R&D we want to point out that the development team is already strong and EKWB is in the middle of its expansion – internally and with external partners – which will considerably accelerate the pace of development of new products. Strict project management will be put in place to manage time plans accordingly. EKWB’s main advantage and basis for company’s success was always the whole team and this is our core and pride. EKWB is putting a lot of effort in creating environment where the world’s top talent can do the best work of their lives.

So, what is new at EKWB? At the moment everything goes according to project plans. There will be a lot of new exciting products for our users launched. Let us just share this year’s launches, most of them will come already until end of November:
Long awaited EK MLC Phoenix is set to launch until 24th of November in a limited edition version.
EK-KIT A240R – Fluid Gaming expansion kit with Vega Full Cover water block until end of this month.
EK-AC Radeon Vega Fluid Gaming expansion full cover water block
EK-M.2 NVMe Heatsink Red, Blue, Green, Purple
EK-FB ASRock X299 RGB Monoblock (Fits 5 motherboards!)
EK-FB GA X399 GAMING RGB Monoblock
EK-FB MSI X399 GAMING PRO CARBON RGB Monoblock
EK-FB ASRock X399 RGB Monoblock

EK Water Blocks has lost its CEO, CTO and multiple R&D staff  
At this time it is unknown what exactly these changes will mean for the company, though it is strange that such huge differences in opinion would occur what has arguably been EK’s most successful year to date. 

You can join the discussion on EK’s changes in management on the OC3D Forums.Â